


the babbling brook

by Dresupi



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Airplane Crashes, Crash Landing, Established Relationship, F/M, Forests, Hurt/Comfort, Odd, Spooky, Strange Things Are Happening To Me, Weirdness, liminal spaces
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 17:46:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 683
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12562804
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dresupi/pseuds/Dresupi
Summary: You'd think an emergency crash landing in the middle of a forest would be the worst part of someone's day...But you'd be wrong.Day 29 of my Halloween Prompts:  Forest





	the babbling brook

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hollyspacey](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hollyspacey/gifts).



> October 29: Forest

Darcy woke up coughing.  Choking.  Her lungs burned as she inhaled and coughed some more.  

Tony pressed his forehead to hers.  “Thought I lost you there, hot stuff.”  

She let out a shaky breath, her arms felt fuzzy, but she was still able to awkwardly pat his shoulder.  “What happened?”  

“Plane went down.  I…” He shook his head in disbelief.  “I dunno what happened.  I just… couldn’t control it anymore.”

She didn’t know which was scarier, a plane crash or Tony admitting he wasn’t in control of something.  

Darcy blinked a few times, looking up into the blue sky above them.  The tops of the trees.  Pillars of black smoke were rising up, up, up as far as the eye could see.  The acrid stench was still in the air. 

The very still, very quiet air.  

“It’s weird…” she mumbled, sitting up slowly.  She leaned against Tony for support and looked around.  “This is a forest, right?”  

“What gave it away?” he teased, looking around at all the trees.  “And  _ what’s _ weird?”  

“It’s so  _ quiet _ .  Aren’t there… ya know.  Animals in forests?  Birds?   _ Something _ ?”

“The crash might have scared them away…” Tony offered, but he was frowning as he looked around.  “Even though…it seems like there should be  _ something _ .”

“Right?”  Darcy struggled to her knees, and then finally to stand.  She felt exhausted.  Wobbly.  Ready to fall over asleep, but she knew she couldn’t.  She probably needed oxygen.  Fresh air.  

Tony was right beside her.  “We shouldn’t go too far, Darce.  Someone will see the smoke and come out to rescue us.”  

“I need fresh air…I’m thirsty…”  

“There’s a stream over there… I don’t know if it’s drinkable, but you can clean up.”  

He helped her stumble over.  Or he pretty much awkwardly dragged her because her legs still felt a little numb and not there.  

Darcy knelt down beside the stream, a new smell filling her nostrils as she did.  She wrinkled her nose, glancing up at Tony, who had a similar look on his face.  

He squinted, looking both ways up the creek before they went wide and he reached for her arm.  “Don’t touch that water, Darce…”  

She trusted him, had grown to know that tone in his voice.  It was usually one reserved for when he woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat and wrapping his body around hers.  Fingers trembling as whatever nightmare dissipated from his system enough that he could fall back to sleep.  

This was new, seeing it in the daytime, though.  And Darcy stood.  Sort of.  If someone could fall to their feet, that’s what she did.  

And when she did, she saw what Tony saw. 

And if she could have run, she would have.  

That smell made more sense now.  

A deer.  Dead.  Bloated.  Was chilling quite literally in the crook of the stream just a few yards away from them.  Now that she was looking at the water, it wasn’t the clean, babbling brook that she had seen when she saw it from the crash site.  

It was kind of scummy.  Full of dead fish.  Flies.  

Also, there were birds chirping now.  It was almost deafening.  Birds.  Bugs.  Twigs snapped and they turned, locking eyes with an actual facts live deer that was now drinking from the gross water.  

Darcy felt sick.  Like she wanted to run over and chase the deer off.  Chase it from its certain death.  

Tony looked a little green and his hand tightened on her arm.  “We need to go.  NOW.”  

“But I thought --” Darcy stopped talking immediately when he pointed.  Abruptly.  Up to the sky.  

Up to the clear, blue sky.  Unmarred by smoke.  To the thicket they’d just left.  Unlittered by plane wreckage.  

“We need to go.  Right now,” he repeated.  She nodded and winced as he slid his arm around her waist.  “I’ll call for a suit, but it’ll take awhile to get here… you okay with walking, hot stuff?”  

“I am okay with running if it gets us as far from here as possible.”  

“That’s my girl…”  

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are happiness! Maybe leave me some happies in the box below? <3 
> 
> If you need some ideas, you can try something like:  
> "<3 <3 <3"  
> "OMG SO CREEPY!"  
> "Tony's got the right idea!" 
> 
> AND, you can totes find me on [tumblr](http://dresupi.tumblr.com/), if that's your thing. <3


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